The 2016 edition of everyone's second favourite Eurovision event, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, has been confirmed to take place on Sunday 20th November 2016 and will take place in the Maltese capital city Valletta with several format changes, a couple of which were announced in this evening's press release.

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Malta to host the 14th Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its Maltese Member Public Broadcasting Services Ltd (PBS) are delighted to announce that the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place this November in Malta. PBS will host this year's event in the capital city, Valletta, after being offered the chance to organise the 14th annual competition following Destiny Chukunyere’s victory at the 2015 contest in Sofia, Bulgaria. Malta last hosted the contest in 2014.

Format changes in 2016

The 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will see several format changes, following intense work by the EBU, the Contest's Steering Group, and PBS as host broadcaster. This year the event will take place on the afternoon of Sunday 20 November and will be held across several locations around Valletta.

"Within the Steering Group we have been discussing how to improve and further the JESC format," said Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor for Junior Eurovision 2016. "Many members, including some not taking part, felt that the timeslot was not suited to children and family viewing, so we have tried to bring the competition to a time more fitting for this type of event."

Sand added: "On behalf of the EBU, I am very excited that PBS has agreed to host the event again, and look forward to working with them after the benchmark that they set back in 2014."

PBS CEO Anton Attard, will again act as Executive Producer having taken the role in 2014. He said he was thrilled to organise the event again: "Within PBS we have tried to challenge every aspect of Junior Eurovision, based on our experience of hosting in 2014. We can again promise a high-quality production, together with some new additions to the format, as well as our Maltese hospitality to everyone who joins us in Malta this November."

More details about this year's competition will be revealed soon. The EBU and PBS will hold a joint press conference in Stockholm at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.

Russia were due to hold their national final for this in mid-August in Sochi and, while the date hasn't changed, it has now been announced that the final will instead be held in Crimea in the same place that used to host Ukrainian Junior Eurovision national finals prior to annexation. Perhaps a taste of things to come with the main contest over the next year with these two!

Russia were due to hold their national final for this in mid-August in Sochi and, while the date hasn't changed, it has now been announced that the final will instead be held in Crimea in the same place that used to host Ukrainian Junior Eurovision national finals prior to annexation. Perhaps a taste of things to come with the main contest over the next year with these two!

Will the EBU really allow Russia to host this in what is really disputed territory?

We're up to 10 participants for this so far with Poland announcing their return!

Big news today is the details of the new voting system, which will be somewhat of a reverse version of what was implemented in adult Eurovision this year in terms of presentation style. As previously revealed, televoting is being scrapped. In each country there will be an adult jury (with 5 adults) and a kids jury (with 5 kids). The points from each adult jury will be combined and revealed at the beginning of the voting via a scoreboard graphic. Then the kids jury votes will be revealed country-by-country (with spokespersons in the arena as in previous years) so that "the children have the final say on what wins".

Sounds good, only criticism is that doing the bloc first means that they won't have the big finish as main Eurovision had this year. But I guess it'd be a bit too harsh to have such a dramatic ending for children!

Yep they won in 2013 and hosted in 2014, now they've won in 2015 and hosted in 2016! I do hope they get to host the main contest at some point, the whole island would go into Eurovision chaos!

There's a little bit of me hoping that this new format works well this year as if it does and the EBU can sell it well to ITV again then I have a feeling they could tie it in nicely with the launch of The Voice Kids - it'd be a great winner's prize as realistically none of the kids will have an immediate music career you would assume. Australia's Bella was from The Voice Kids last year and the likes of Slovenia's Lina came from their version of Got Talent I think so there is history in the junior contest for talent show participants getting involved just as there is in the adult version.

We are up to 13 participants so far anyway, Cyprus have confirmed their return (and I've seen an advert for it multiple times already here on their local TV channels!!!) I presume Georgia will make it 14 and then it gets more difficult. Serbia and Montenegro could go either way, I think the former participating is more likely than the latter. And then there is Australia, I assume they will enter again (they have been invited apparently) seeing as they've been given the chance.

I'm expecting France to return (their head of delegation was at the Maltese JESC selection as a juror), and I have a feeling Germany may come back too. For all of the big changes that are happening this year there has got to be at least a couple of the big powers forcing them to happen and agreeing to come back if they do. Sweden said in 2015 that they were only skipping one year, so they are due back but with the changes I'm not sure they will bother.

So I think they'll probably manage 17 participants again, the 13 confirmed plus Georgia, Australia, France and then either Germany, Serbia, Sweden or Montenegro (I doubt they'll get all 4 of them).

Russia have selected... a GIRL! Sofia Fisenko will be representing Russia, and you can listen to her song in the link below. It's pleasant but I can't see it doing particularly well. I prefer Besoj to this out of the 2 actual songs we have so far.

do we not participate? i guess the BBC aren't emotionally invested in the competition enough/can barely be arsed for the adults competition so there's not chance they'll even give a flying SHIT about this.

shame really as this is ONCE AGAIN a PERFECT example of the BBC not capitalizing on a $$$ making opportunity that's LITERALLY like taking candy from a baby. there's so much potential for the Eurovision series to be made BIG in the UK yet they don't seem to be bothered, apart from some crappy low-budget national selection show?? if i was the head of the BBC i know i'd be straight in there making Eurovision NQ's a huge live event

We used to participate, but it was ITV that had the rights. We participated in 2003, 2004 and 2005 doing VERY well coming 3rd and 2nd in the first two years. In 2005 we had a bit of a misfire, I believe Joni was ill on the day of the contest so struggled with the vocals plus her song was a bit grown up for what was a contest much more aimed at kids in the early days compared to nowadays where it is more for teenagers.

ITV withdrew blaming low viewing figures, I think it was shown on ITV1 for the first year and possibly the second year too but it was relegated to ITV2 for 2005 (I think). It's a shame as we were so successful in two of the three contests we took part in, and we have the advantage here that we used to have in the main contest pre-1999 of being able to sing completely in English which only Australia, Ireland and Malta can also do. Everyone else must sing a good 70-80% of their song in their national languages.

I can't see the BBC ever bothering with it, but ITV could definitely make use of it again. With The Voice Kids starting next year, Junior Eurovision would be a fantastic winner's prize as realistically no child singer is going to have a successful career until they are older. I imagine the participation fees are tiny in comparison to what ITV spend on The Voice, X Factor etc. I bet it'd cost less than an episode of Coronation Street!

Not sure it has been confirmed but I think I remember somewhere that The Voice Kids will be shown on ITV1, I imagine it'll be in a slot around 5-6pm. It'll definitely get a decent slot seeing as will.i.am and Emma Willis are both involved in the Kids version too. I also think it'll probably be aired in the summer after Britain's Got Talent finishes its run. I can't imagine them having both Voice shows running side by side, or have either running side by side with another reality show in BGT. So it would time perfectly, and I imagine Australia will get their participant from their version of The Voice Kids again for 2016 as they did with Bella last year.

Not sure it has been confirmed but I think I remember somewhere that The Voice Kids will be shown on ITV1, I imagine it'll be in a slot around 5-6pm. It'll definitely get a decent slot seeing as will.i.am and Emma Willis are both involved in the Kids version too. I also think it'll probably be aired in the summer after Britain's Got Talent finishes its run. I can't imagine them having both Voice shows running side by side, or have either running side by side with another reality show in BGT. So it would time perfectly, and I imagine Australia will get their participant from their version of The Voice Kids again for 2016 as they did with Bella last year.

ah that's good to know. i'd really like us to make an attempt of Eurovision Kids - it's something the UK audience would lap up (literally, the love for kids that can sing is massive lol). i just hope we don't get our hopes up and The Voice Kids gets inevitably pushed into the background after crappy first week views.